Pahlavi pledged to lead a transition to a 'free and democratic Iran.' He called on President Trump to continue the American-Israeli military operation against Iran, in the hope of displacing a regime he decried for placing a 'sea of blood' between itself and its people.
Kordia was arrested in 2024 during the Gaza solidarity protests at Columbia University. The charges against her were dropped the next day, but she was detained in March 2025 by ICE during a routine immigration check-in.
The so-called troika of tyranny in Latin America, the dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, was always a misleading oversimplification. Despite sharing some common elements due to their authoritarian resilience, 21st-century dictatorships were never a homogeneous bloc.
The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday in what President Donald Trump said was a massive operation to destroy the country's military capabilities and eliminate the threat of it creating a nuclear weapon. Iran's Foreign Ministry said it would defend its homeland and its Revolutionary Guard said it launched counterattacks, firing drones and missiles at Israel and strikes aimed at U.S. military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
Tens of thousands of people have gathered around the world for al-Quds Day, an annual event on the final Friday of Ramadan demonstrating solidarity with Palestine and opposition to Israeli occupation. Rallies took place across numerous countries, including Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia, Kashmir and Yemen.
As recent demonstrations showed, a sizable segment of the Iranian people already opposes the regime. But when President Trump told them to 'take over your government,' it seems unlikely he considered how the regime responded to those protests, or other movements for a more open Iranian society.
Fifteen years ago, Egyptians from all walks of life took to the street to demand "bread, freedom, social justice." They were protesting the oppressive 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak. Egypt had been under martial law for 31 years. This meant that political opposition was silenced, and opponents were often imprisoned and tortured. Police brutality was the norm. Egypt's economy was also weak and relied heavily on foreign aid and loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Among the rebels who, on December 8, entered Damascus and put an end to almost 14 years of conflict and the Assad family regime one of the cruellest and longest-lasting in the Middle East was one who spoke Spanish with a slight Caribbean accent. Dr. Bachar Alkaderi, a graduate of the University of Medical Sciences of Havana, specializing in general and thoracic surgery, became, through the twists of fate and history, a revolutionary commander.
